Poetic Referendum(s) On Life

Lay Down/The Repeating Refrain

Hands wrest heart from soul
without physical act
Touch and all crumbles
into virtuality, nothing

Eyes penetrate a weak mind
without a second glance
View all that tumbles
into hollow reality, a void

Old patterns emerge, a defense
Knee reacts, hands hold down
Mouth strapped, I shut
Speak no more of experience
unacknowledged.


11.26.23
Working on

I play the SYML song and response with no preconceived notion what I’ll write.
Lay down, repeating refrain
Locked in membrane
Seeking purpose within a crowd
Loud, words forced out
Shatter the heat, mind, soul
Crumble into a sea of self-doubt
Personality un-conformed cannot reform, anymore.

Better to live in a void,
Be as unexistant as possible,
Not a sound, mutter, mumble
Restraint so tight, I fail to breathe


Find comfort of satin, in
another lover’s arms, who’ll hold
protect a giant man with plow hand
to settle the quakes that disrupt
the tranquility of candle-illumed rose room
Shuttered portals lock all out
But the mere essence of the remains
Of a graphite skin and bones dull
The galley of hull on torn sail craft
Amid a rock harbor, no sound,
edge of the earth on tattered map
given a lad who dreamed serpents would come
lay waste to a bright sailor, claimed black pirate
shackled dreams interned in purgatory
nary a clank, clasped cold in steel
never see another sunrise, sundown
in literal afterlife counting down
tether free, float, sink deep, never found
at the center of a bottomless reality
I count each moment of descent, savor
sweet death of a mouth penned words
in time bottled body, never found again,
no eyes, heart, could possible perceive.

I am him, the one you don’t wonder about
pathetic persecution, in negation,
censored so casually to sodden sea
free to just be everything and nothing
without existence personally, blight
on one who tried to bloom words, life
viewed from your above, looking down
deciding fate abd destiny not my right
if not enslaved to conformity over co-existence
could not commune without carefully
stepping about scattered shards, suddenly
Bleed, cry pain, not understanding
why a moth drawn to light. Couldn’t see
how reform, be what you want without
losing all I dream, seek, am about.

Submerge in this primordial lay down,
dream fire consumes and hardens my metal
find strength in this fight…yet brittle
break from the quiet, which is sound
surround, echo repetitively, shatter all
that epoxy in 11th hour can’t repair, stilled.
Shhhhh, heart lay down.
Shhhhh, mind lay down
Shhhhh, small boy lay down
and let some mother’s arms
collect the remainder for ever after
Lover come before the striking hour
Gifted glass returns to sea-soothing sand
never to be reformed, graveless, forgotten
but for memory loss vision as guide
Lay down, sweet soul
Lay down, tender heart,
Lay restless mind, sleep in decay.
Don’t dream again, that maybe one day?
Overstayed.

11.26.23

All this, with memory of the song of defeat amid a throng
with eyes redirected to sky, great beyond.

It’s not your fault, only comfort I can add
It’s your job. Stick to those weapons. Lay
each
down.


I’ll look back at this too, and wonder
Unable to remember day-to-day
where I’ve been
What I’ve shared
How this is to all go down

Nattering